http://www.classroom20.com/video/a-mustsee-for-every
This was by far one of the most thought provoking videos I have watched of late. I don't know how I feel about the message being put out. It reminds me of an article I read titled Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants by Marck Prensky. He says that educators or even just adults today are digital immigrants, meaning we were not born into the digital age. Digital natives are those who are native speakers of the digital language and were born into a world where it all existed. I suppose it's normal for me being a digital immigrant to have mixed emotions towards the changes that are taking place in technology at an alarming rate. I'm not really that old, I have almost always had e-mail and cell phones and such, but as fast as things are developing I feel almost as though I can't keep up. As far as educating children goes, I feel like technology should play a role, I'm just not sure I'm sold on how big of one just yet. I am aware that we need to prepare students for the world in which they will be active members of society and without the use of technology we would be doing our students an injustice. I still feel that students need to learn the basics before they can be successful users of technology. So much to think about...I still don't know which side of the fence I stand on.
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What do you consider as the basics? When I was first teaching there was still much grumbling by parents and many teachers that we didn't spend enough time on proper handwriting skills. I don't hear much of that any more... handwriting was a basic, not so much now. Are there new basics? How do the new basics impact how the old 3 R's are taught? Do digital natives learn the same way as immigrants?
ReplyDeleteMy elder daughter just took the ACT for the first time last weekend. The proctor asked each student to sign his or her name in cursive after writing an authenticity statement. There were many students who did not know how to write their names in script! So, I guess the old basic of cursive writing has become obsolete. This technology age certainly seems daunting, but I think it is also exciting. Especially with how fast things are changing, I think the greatest gift to give our students is to teach them the ability to adapt. Is that a teachable trait? Hmmm…
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